Midterms Labor Candidates are Shaking Up the Status Quo and Standing Up for Workers

Labor has always held electoral power, especially when wielded by women.

No Class is an op-ed column by writer and radical organizer Kim Kelly that connects worker struggles and the current state of the American labor movement with its storied — and sometimes bloodied — past.

Labor has always held electoral power, especially when wielded by women. Former Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins’s lifelong dedication to workers’ rights was sparked by witnessing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, in which 146 people — predominantly young Jewish immigrant women — died, most as a result of locked factory doors. Though they shunned the ballot box, legendary political radicals like Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn were all labor organizers. In 1872, Victoria Woodhull — the first woman to run for president (with abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her running mate) — supported workers’ rights and trade unionism. Much more recently, a 28-year-old, union-friendly avowed socialist and organizer from the Bronx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, beat an establishment Democratic incumbent in the New York state representative primary race.

Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s transformative presidency, America’s labor movement has been intertwined with electoral politics, and its influence has seen major workers’ rights reforms, such as the establishment of the eight-hour workday, the end of child labor, and the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which strengthened workers’ right to organize. The labor movement is also responsible for establishing a federal minimum wage and laws that ban wage discrimination based on gender and race at work, as well as those that regulate safety standards to protect workers on the job.

It’s heartening to see that so many of the progressive women leading the expected “Blue Wave” of Democratic candidates this midterm season come from strong union backgrounds. Their very existence mounts a challenge to the omnipresence of the “white working class” trope and the whitewashing of the modern working class, which, in contrast to the stereotypical “white guy in a hard hat," is actually predominantly made up of women and people of color. According to the AFL-CIO, women make up 46% of union members, and they are projected to be a majority by 2025. More than a third — about 36% — of union members are people of color, and many are immigrants.

Liz Shuler of the AFL-CIO, the highest-ranking woman officer in the labor organization’s history, tells Teen Vogue that union women have “far more” equitable pay than their nonunion counterparts do. “For LGBTQ workers in many states, a union contract is the only legal protection they have on the job. For people of color, a union card means protection from discrimination at work and an opportunity to thrive. The labor movement is strongest when it embodies real solidarity,” she says.

A record number of first-time women candidates are running for office in 2018, the majority of them on Democratic or progressive tickets. Shuler wants to see that translate to the labor movement.

“We've been at the center of every major electoral victory over the last year and a half; it's clear that the path to power runs through labor, and you're going to see that on an even bigger scale in November,” she says.

According to AFL-CIO Deputy Press Secretary John Weber, a number of former and current union members and labor organizers are currently running for seats in Congress and locally, including Nevada’s Jacky Rosen, Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, Minnesota’s Julie Blaha, Connecticut’s Julie Kushner, and Oregon’s Val Hoyle.

"Oftentimes, organized labor is the only chance for working people to have a voice,” Jahana Hayes, a National Education Association and American Federation of School Administrators member and 2016 National Teacher of the Year who is running for Congress in Connecticut's 5th district, tells Teen Vogue.

Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American legislator in U.S. history and a labor candidate, formerly of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Omar is one of two candidates poised to become the first Muslim women in Congress. And then there’s Yvanna Cancela — the former political director for UNITE HERE’s Local 226, the Culinary Workers Union, which is Nevada’s largest labor union — who was appointed to the Nevada State Senate and is now running for a full term. Both Omar and Cancela are running to stave off Republican opponents this year, and both credit the lessons learned through organizing within the labor movement as instrumental preparation for an office run.

“Fighting alongside my union for fair wages, health care, and workplace protections allowed me to see firsthand what redistribution of power looks like,” Omar tells Teen Vogue. “The greatest lesson I learned from working within the movement and drawing on the experiences of my colleagues is how to harness power beyond the individual. We organize not to secure protection for ourselves but for everyone. A better future can only be secured when there is a collective fight working toward a greater vision.”

Omar has made waves with her unapologetically progressive, labor-friendly platform, as well as her outspoken criticism of President Donald Trump, under whose racist, Islamophobic travel ban she and her family would’ve been barred from entering this country, as they fled a Kenyan refugee camp. In 2016, Omar won her race for the Minnesota House of Representatives to become the first elected Somali-American Muslim legislator in the U.S. — the same night as Trump’s election win. If elected, Omar would join the 37 other Black women who have been elected to Congress since Shirley Chisholm won election to the House in 1968.

In 2016, Cancela became the first Latina to serve in the Nevada Senate when she was appointed to succeed Ruben Kihuen. She is currently the executive director of the Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project, which offers immigrant workers pro bono assistance with naturalization applications.

“I joined the union as an organizer, and worked hard to talk to workers who didn't have a union about the benefits of fighting for representation,” Cancela tells Teen Vogue. “As Democrats talk about the growing gap between the rich and the poor, they should be talking about unions as the solution and empowering workers to fight for their collective rights.”

As the labor movement grows and expands to reflect the changing demographics of the working class in this country, it’s important for the voices of individuals like Omar, Cancela, and Shuler to be amplified.

As it now stands, union leadership does not reflect the realities of the working class. For example, according to a 2015 Institute for Policy Studies report called "And Still I Rise," Black women have the highest rate of union membership among women in the country, yet are vastly underrepresented in union leadership. However, some unions are working to change that and are looking at the continuing success of union-affiliated political candidates like Omar and Cancela as an opportunity to increase outreach and provide more resources for people of color, women, and nonbinary candidates.

“Representation matters, and across the country, more and more unions are making a concerted effort to train the next generation of leaders with a concerted focus on bringing in people from under-represented backgrounds,” Cancela says.

“One of the most powerful ways you can make a difference in the lives of those around you is by helping lead and strengthen your union,” Shuler adds. “There are so many opportunities to make your voice heard, and the more active you become, the higher you’ll climb on that leadership ladder. And the labor movement needs you now more than ever.“

As the midterms loom closer and the future of the American political process hangs in the balance, the tenacity and talent of the labor-affiliated women currently seeking office is admirable — no matter which side of the electoral argument one may take.